Can't
belive this will be the year we become parents!! We have certainly been enjoying being 'just married' for the past 6 years but we are excited about our growing family!
Hope you all had a wonderful New Year's Eve and Day! Justin and I celebrated at home with take out from our favorite restaurant in Athens (
Depalmas), a good movie, and sparkling grape juice. Well, that was just for me as Justin hates it and we don't drink, so he had some root beer. On New Year's Day, I got to enjoy breakfast in bed.
Pregnancy Details (this section is really long!)
Since I have kept it a secret for so long, people have been asking about the details, so I'll fill that in.
New Year's day officially starts my second trimester, my 14th week. Yes, I have been nauseous! Thankfully, I have not had to throw up but have definitely had queasy stomachs for the first 10 weeks or so. Even to the point of eating saltine type crackers, which I hate. I rarely eat breakfast so I have had to start making myself "eat good for the baby" in the mornings and that certainly helped the queasiness. I
believe I am over it now and I am very glad about that! I still am getting gagged when I brush my teeth though...:-P
Food issues: CRAVINGS? The only one I can think of is that I was wanting sushi for several weeks. Now I do not actually eat raw fish sushi usually, I like smoked salmon/cream cheese (The Bagel Roll-I'm salivating thinking of it now) and cooked fish like shrimp tempura, etc. According to my
internet baby sources, I am not supposed to eat smoked fish, which I think makes me want it more. After I told the gang at work, a few of us went for sushi the next day and it was very yummy but it was still sad that I couldn't have my bagel roll. When we stayed with my parents over the Christmas holidays, Justin brought items to have lox and bagels for breakfast. I cooked my smoked salmon in the toaster oven and it was very yummy. BUT, that brings me to the next issue:
SMELL. My taste buds are a little off but my sense of smell is greatly increased and after eating 1 1/2 parts of the salmon bagel...I had to move it out of my sight/smell. I have been sensitive to smells but thankfully nothing is really making me ill. For example, one night we were watching TV and I kept smelling peanut butter and chocolate and I thought it was a very strong smell. No one else was smelling it. I looked around and spied an unopened, cellophane sealed box of butterfingers was on the floor next to me. Everyone thought I was wacky. Now, if I could only use this power for monetary gain in some way....
Fatigue: I have had a few very tired days, but not too bad. I was very tired on Monday night, but that is probably due to being on the elliptical at the gym for 25 minutes. That is a rough 25 minutes!! I have had a few extra nap requirements and I have always hated getting up in the morning, but it does seem worse. That is supposed to be getting better in my second trimester, so we shall see. Yes, I am trying to keep up exercising while I'm pregnant. Justin has been doing great over the past year, losing weight and is in good shape and I've not been doing too bad. We are still hiking to the top of Stone Mountain when we can. We went last weekend and on the way up I was asking Justin how long he thought I could keep hiking to the top. On the way down, I realized the likelihood is that I will have to stop hiking not due to my size/girth but rather my need to pee and the only bathrooms are located at the bottom and top of the mountain. I went before we left the house, when we got there, when we got to the top, and had to go on the way down, but was easily able to wait til we reached the bottom. Doesn't help that exercising makes me thirsty and I have to drink on the hike. I think the egg-sized baby is somehow creating more urine than usual. Anyhow, excessive urine production will likely end my hiking ability before my size or future swollen feet will.
Foot Injury: Some of you know, but about a week after we 'officially' knew I was pregnant, I started having some pain in my right foot that quickly got worse to the point that it was swelling so bad I could hardly walk and had to buy a pair of slip on boots two sizes too big to have something to wear! I went to a family orthopedist and it is always enjoyable to hear, "What the heck is that?" after the doctor sees your
xrays (yes, I did have a total of 4
xrays while cooking this baby so when it has a 3rd arm I know it will be my fault). He took the
xrays to 2 other doctors who also had no idea what it was either. It looked like some type of growth on the top of my foot, next to the bone on the second to last toe. Basically, it probably needed to be removed, but due to being pregnant nothing could really be done to
fix the problem until after delivery. This issue made it a little difficult to keep our secret because, to quote my brother, "Why don't they cut it out and find out what it is?!!" I was very upset after hearing that, a little hysterical crying at first. I mean, I knew I was going to be wobbling around down the road as I got bigger anyhow and I couldn't even walk without great pain (getting up to go the bathroom at night was awful, even with the
cane
I was walking with at the time). I also was very upset that I wouldn't be able keep active like I was hoping to do during pregnancy. My foot actually got quite a bit worse after seeing the doctor. I decided to see a recommended podiatrist, hoping he might have seen this before or give me some additional ideas for pain management or foot care that might help. That is where I did the second baby zapping
xrays (actually, I was covered very well with the lead apron and you probably get more scatter radiation from your TV and microwave). About 5 days had passed between
xrays and they looked totally different. What was a solid mass seemed to now be in a few small pieces. The new doctor had no clue what it actually was either. :-) I am a mystery. However, he wanted to treat it like a fracture and gave me a fabulous walking cast to wear for 3 weeks. My medical opinion is this: I was growing a bone spur on this area of my foot this summer (same area was hurting some this summer, but went away so I thought I just bruised it or something-learning point: always check out weird pains!!) and then it settled into a position that didn't hurt and was fine. Then sometime in November I bumped it or something and it was irritated and then the spur fractured-causing the severe pain and swelling. THANKFULLY, after a few days of wearing the far from fashionable $130 boot, the pain was totally gone and the swelling almost entirely subsided. I wore the boot as I was told for the 3 weeks but it probably wasn't necessary. Anyhow, went back on 12/16 and doctor felt sure it was a fracture of a bone spur that was healing itself. So I was off the boot, allowed to exercise as comfortable, come back in July to re-evaluate, wear boot if starts up again. There is still a lumpy spot on the top of my foot that he said is just a little swelling from the irritation. It is a little icky looking but I am feeling SO much better. I will say I did wear my boot to the gym and rode the bike several times, so I didn't feel like a total bump on a log. Please keep my foot in your prayers so that I can make it through July without any additional problems. Here is a lovely shot of me in my cast from Thanksgiving:
